With political leaders coming to the rescue of former president Pervez Musharraf in high treason case, it seems that the ruling party is becoming more and more isolated.
On Monday, opposition leader in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah and Chaudhrys of Gujrat once again raised questions over the fairness of Musharraf’s trial on treason charges.
Shah was the pick of the day for the political observers as he questioned the very basis of the trial. Shah asked the government not to single out Musharraf and proceed against all those who supported Musharraf in his military coup of October 12, including the judges that granted legitimacy to the coup. He said that by singling out Musharraf, the government is giving wrong signals.
PML-Q leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said that an army chief could never be a traitor. Shujaat said, “A traitor is a person who sides with the enemy.” He wants the political leadership to remove the word traitor from the constitution.
Already, MQM has lent support to Musharraf with both Altaf Hussain and other senior party leaders asking the government to hold Musharraf accountable but not on the basis of emergency he imposed in 2007.
Similarly, the PTI too wanted Musharraf’s trial on the basis of October 12, 1999.
However, Shah’s remarks in favour of Musharraf are quite interesting, especially after the position taken by former president Asif Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
Sources said that the political forces got their acts together after getting a green signal from the quarters concerned. They also disclosed that until recently the Chaudhrys were least interested in the fate of Musharraf, but they are all-out for Musharraf now.
“Already Khalid Ranjha, who is quite close to the Chaudhrys, has joined the legal team of Musharraf while more importantly, PML-Q leader Waseem Sajjad has also offered his services to the Musharraf’s legal team. It is all evidence that the Chaudhrys are in contact with the quarters concerned,” commented a senior PML-Q leader.
The aim behind all the political support for Musharraf is to create hurdles for the government in pursuing the case under Article 6. It seems the strategy has been working for Musharraf and his backers.
Already the government stands alone. Even the PPP, PTI and other forces are on the opposite side in this regard. Again, the way military took out Musharraf from civilian control and landed him in a military hospital, ignoring all other medical institutions, showed the government’s helplessness.
Political observers do not expect much to come out of the trial after the SC bench sought a medical certificate from Musharraf’s lawyers during the proceedings on Monday.
